Greetings from the Technology / Computer Lab at Villago Middle School.
We have a great series of lessons we will be presenting every Wednesday after school (4:10 – 5:10) in the exciting world of Computer Science / Programming.
You might ask, “What is computer programming?”
Think of it this way; take a look around your home, notice things like cell phones, microwaves, computers, and tablets such as Ipads… all of these things needed a computer scientist to help build them and computer programmers to make them “work”.
Do you remember an email that I sent out in the early part of December? It mentioned a great opportunity for our technology students to participate in a world-wide event called Hour of Code.
The Hour of Code (the brain child of Code.org,) was our first step on a journey to learn more about how technology works and how to create software applications. After a busy week engaged in almost 2 hours of programming, all 170 students were excited to learn that 23,087,156 MILLION students in the United States and around the world learned computer code! AND that they were a part of it!
Guess what? I just recently learned that over a MILLION students have signed up in the United Kingdom to do the same the 2nd week of March!
How can this impact your child? This is the technology age and our children are right in the middle of it! Where do they spend the bulk of their free time? With Technology!
Our children’s future is bright with career opportunities in computer programming. There were an estimated 344,000 computer programmers employed during 2012 with an average wage of $75,000! This is expected to rise significantly as new ideas and inventions increase and the need for programmers grow.
What could be more excited than playing the newest game (Have you heard of “Flapping Birds” yet?) than to have been one of the people responsible for writing the code that developed and marketed the game!
My goal is to offer as many in-depth concepts, skills and training in our Lab as I can. We are limited in our present hardware and software because of the strapped financial condition of our District; but, I see Computer Programming as a “skill for the future” with “access” the only hurdle! Most of these programs are FREE!
Take a look at the resources that are FREE and can be accessed from school or HOME!
Tynker
Scratch
Lightbot and
Code.org
We had a great time using instructional lessons from Code.org! Next, we will be using several instructional resources: Tynker.com and (hopefully) Khan Academy.
If you have any questions about what all this means, we would like to invite you to our classes to observe whatwe do and howwe do it! To date, we have created over 30 short programs that demonstrate the various aspects of programming we are currently learning.
Email notification
Greetings from the Technology / Computer Lab at Villago Middle School.
We have a great series of lessons we will be presenting every Wednesday after school (4:10 – 5:10) in the exciting world of Computer Science / Programming.
You might ask, “What is computer programming?”
Think of it this way; take a look around your home, notice things like cell phones, microwaves, computers, and tablets such as Ipads… all of these things needed a computer scientist to help build them and computer programmers to make them “work”.
Do you remember an email that I sent out in the early part of December? It mentioned a great opportunity for our technology students to participate in a world-wide event called Hour of Code.
The Hour of Code (the brain child of Code.org,) was our first step on a journey to learn more about how technology works and how to create software applications. After a busy week engaged in almost 2 hours of programming, all 170 students were excited to learn that 23,087,156 MILLION students in the United States and around the world learned computer code! AND that they were a part of it!
Guess what?I just recently learned that over a MILLION students have signed up in the United Kingdom to do the same
the 2nd week of March!
Take a look at the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC5FbmsH4fw
How can this impact your child? This is the technology age and our children are right in the middle of it! Where do they spend the bulk of their free time? With Technology!
Our children’s future is bright with career opportunities in computer programming. There were an estimated 344,000 computer programmers employed during 2012 with an average wage of $75,000! This is expected to rise significantly as new ideas and inventions increase and the need for programmers grow.
What could be more excited than playing the newest game (Have you heard of “Flapping Birds” yet?) than to have been one of the people responsible for writing the code that developed and marketed the game!
My goal is to offer as many in-depth concepts, skills and training in our Lab as I can. We are limited in our present hardware and software because of the strapped financial condition of our District; but, I see Computer Programming as a “skill for the future” with “access” the only hurdle! Most of these programs are FREE!
Take a look at the resources that are FREE and can be accessed from school or HOME!
Scratch
We had a great time using instructional lessons from Code.org! Next, we will be using several instructional resources: Tynker.com and (hopefully) Khan Academy.
If you have any questions about what all this means, we would like to invite you to our classes to observe whatwe do and howwe do it! To date, we have created over 30 short programs that demonstrate the various aspects of programming we are currently learning.
Cliff Locklear – Technology / Computer Lab @ Villago Middle School
School: (520) 423-0176 Ext. 5141